Out Now edited by Saundra Mitchell

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Inkyard Press in exchange for an honest review.

Number of stories: 17
Great stories: 3
Good stories: 6
Okay/not for me stories: 8

Despite what those stats might suggest, I adored this collection. The stories which I loved, I really loved and I know I'll remember them for a long time. The good stories were similarly very enjoyable, and those I didn't enjoy were mostly due to them being genres I am not typically a fan of. I have comments for every story so I'm going to launch straight into those.

Kick. Push. Coast. by Candice Montgomery-This was a great opening story about a girl who is skateboarding and questioning her sexuality. The skateboarding works as a decent metaphor and while not a lot is going on, it's very well-written and I like the general themes and feel of it.

What Happens in the Closet by Caleb Roehrig-I LOVED this story. Set in a world with vampires, a gay guy is at his Homecoming dance when a vampire attack happens. He ends up in the closet with his crush and things go from there. This had a brilliant sense of humour and fantastic character dynamics. It was also very hot! One of my favourites and I wish it was a whole book.

Player One Fight! by Eliot Schrefer-This started off strong but got a bit lost along the way. A guy uses videogame metaphors to describe the kind of messy relationship he's in at the moment. It ended very abruptly and I couldn't quite get what the author was trying to say.

Lumber Me Mine by CB Lee-This story is the perfect example of how to flesh out things with only a few words. A lesbian who has recently gone through a bad breakup is forced to return to school where her ex attends. She also thinks the new girl in her class is pretty cute. This had great rep, cute character dynamics and I liked the protagonist a lot. Very solid.

Follower by Will Kostakis-Whilst hanging out on a beach, a guy sees a famous influencer and strikes up a conversation with him. This is a great example of how I don't necessarily have to like the characters in order to appreciate a relationship dynamic. It had some good moments and potentially could have been fleshed out more but I still really enjoyed it.

Refresh by Mark Oshiro-A boy waiting for his app date is in for a surprise. This could have gone a bit sour but I loved the writing and it was so well-executed. Again, this was another story I wanted more of but not in a bad way. It ended at a good point and, while not as fluffy as some of the others, still had an engaging relationship dynamic.

Victory Lap by Julian Winters-This story genuinely almost made me cry, despite not being sad in the least bit. A boy is looking for a date for his dance and is unsure of how to come out to his father. This was the best kind of cute, the characters were insanely fleshed out for how short it is and I absolutely adored it. A definite favourite.

A Road of One's Own by Kate Hart-A group of queer people go on a road trip together and a romance ensues. This one was okay and again, it had a decent discussion of rep and various things that can come up when you are not white and straight. However, it was a bit lacking and I never really bonded with the characters that strongly.

Seditious Teapots by Katherine Locke-This had an awesome premise. A person starts collecting teapots with various anarchist/political things on them and the story is about them trying to work out their gender identity, pronouns etc while accepting that labels don't necessarily fit them well (I use 'they' as that was the phrase used in the story, though it was also discussed as not a great-fitting label. Alas I lack a better one).

Starcrossed in DC by Jessica Verdi-This short story basically has the plot of State of Us as far as I can tell. That is, two daughters of the president and a rival candidate fall in love. It had potential but again, the characters weren't super engaging and that made it hard to get invested in their romance.

Floating by Tanya Boteju-I could not remember this story for the life of me and sadly, none of the reviews I checked could remember it either. I like Tanya Boteju's other work but this did not stand out.

The Soft Place by Hillary Monahan-This story was almost entirely about a girl's drug trip. I can see some people really liking this story but sadly it didn't gel well with me and I didn't get a whole lot out of it.

A Pound of Flesh by Kosoko Jackson-This was the story about a human in love with a god and the punishment Aphrodite enacts on them because of it. Again, this was a story that just wasn't for me but this time it was because of the fantasy element and the way it was done. Fantasy fans might get a lot more out of this but it didn't do a whole lot for me.

One Spell Too Many by Tara Sim-In a world with witches, a girl works at a bakery incorporating spells into the things they sell. She gets asked to make a love potion for a friend and a confidence potion for her crush and hi-jinks ensure. This was another favourite for me. Very cute set-up and, while somewhat predictable, I loved the world and characters.

Far From Home by Saundra Mitchell-This is about an alien/Superman expy and him getting into a situation with his crush. This had some interesting points and not bad writing, but the sci-fi/alien element didn't do a whole lot for me.

The Coronation by Meredith Russo-I got lost pretty soon when reading this one. Two trans teens get sent out into a fantastical world but I couldn't keep track of what was going on. Again, not my kind of fantasy sadly.

Once Upon a Seastorm by Fox Benwell-This was another fantasy story which looked at being trans through the lens of the selkie mythology. I actually really enjoyed this, partially because my trans partner is super into selkies but also just because it was a well-written story which was lighter on the fantasy elements. I liked what it did and thought it was a cool concept.
~
So yes, overall I really adored this book. I've not yet read All Out so I can't say how it compares, but this had a whole variety of rep, plots and characters to enjoy. I am so glad I read this and I will 100% be recommending this to my queer (and not so queer) friends.

Overall Rating:

Meet Cute: A Short Story Anthology

Every now and then, I love to pick up a short story collection. My usual weakness is horror...actually, I've only ever read horror anthologies before. I had heard intriguing things about Meet Cute though from the reviewers I watch on Youtube and since February is the month of love, I decided to give it a try.

Is it cheesy to say I fell in love?

I am a little shocked honestly to tell you the truth. I was not expecting to like this collection as much as I did but here we are. The overarching theme is that this is a collection of stories about two people meeting in adorable ways and (usually) forming a romantic relationship. They are almost all contemporary with only one or two having some kind of fantastical element thrown in. They are also hella gay which I am all for. No male/male romances sadly but the lesbian representation is fantastic. As this is an anthology, I'm going to break down each story with a rating and then do an overall average at the end.

Siege Etiquette, 2.5/5-Sadly one of the weakest ones starts this anthology off. A guy and a girl get stuck in a bathroom together at a party. I didn't really feel any chemistry between them and the cheating aspect unfortunately negated any potential cuteness for me.

Print Shop, 4.5/5-Yesss, getting in early with the cute lesbians. One girl starts working at a print shop and goes above and beyond to help out a girl she likes. A very cute story that I definitely wanted more of. I found the romance a little one-sided maybe but that really is a minor complaint.

Hourglass, 3/5-This is an okay story but it barely meets the criteria. It's not really a romance, it's more a story about friendship. A girl is about to graduate/have prom and she falls out with her best friend. It ended way too abruptly and I would have liked it a lot more if it continued after the end.

Click, 3/5-This was maybe the poorest story in terms of actual writing. I didn't mind the plot (two people get paired up by a futuristic dating app) but I found my interest waning which made it hard to follow. Sadly the couple weren't compelling.

The Intern, 3/5-Again, this romance wasn't very believable for me. An intern gets to show the cute rockstar around and they fall in love. Had some hidden depth and wasn't badly written but still meh.

Somewhere That's Green, 3.5/5-I AM SO TORN. Lesbians! Little Shop of Horrors! Trans people! All great elements. But I really didn't like half the pairing in this story and I felt like she wasn't a very appealing character. The idea was okay but it still made me a little uncomfortable. Ah well.

The Way We Love Here, 2.5/5-Okay no, this was the worst written story. This is one of the ones with fantasy elements but I found it so hard to follow (by which I mean, it didn't make me care enough to get past the clumsy description). Not terrible but a weak link.

Oomph, 5/5-Omg yes. My absolute favourite by a mile. Two girls meet in an airport and aaaaah. I've never read anything by this author but I desperately want to now. This was literally perfect and I won't hear a bad word against it.

The Dictionary of You and Me, 3/5-Eh. The guy in this was so unappealing to me. Basically the girl works in a library and the guy won't return a dictionary so they've been chatting on the phone for four months. It was painfully obvious he was going to turn out to be the cute guy from school and I didn't buy it.

The Unlikely Likelihood of Falling in Love, 5/5-SO GOOD. My second favourite story. A girl who is super into statistics sees a cute guy on a train and then does a project calculating how to see him again. Another couple I would love to read more about and the ending was so satisfying.

259 Million Miles, 2/5-This one is about two people who want to be selected to go to Mars and as part of the selection process, they get put in a room together for 24 hours. Again, I didn't buy the romance and the ending wasn't satisfying at all.

Something Real, 3.5/5-I didn't like the romance in this one but I loved the premise and world-building. Basically there are departments that deal with different kinds of love (Unrequited, Breakups etc) and the main guy goes to try and find out why his last relationship ended. Managed to not be entirely predictable but that wasn't enough on its own.

Okay, so based entirely on maths, this anthology gets 3.5/5. However, I honestly enjoyed it much more than that applies. None of the stories are truly bad and the good ones are so incredibly good that it makes the whole thing worth reading. A nice surprise and a lovely start to the month of love.

Overall Rating:

.5

The One by Kiera Cass

*Spoilers Ahead*

Urgh, why can't I stop? The One is much more of the same, and if you've read my other reviews then you already know how I feel about this series. However, this is the book that tries to ramp up the whole dystopian/drama aspect. Unfortunately it falls really flat.

So yeah, this book has the exact same problem as the last one. America clearly loves Maxon. Why hasn't she picked him yet? Well, in this one it's because she refuses to be the first one to say 'I love you'! Yep, we've reached that level. Aspen doesn't even feature as a love interest really, except to mess everything up because the prince FINALLY finds out he was the one America used to love. Yes, it's executed terribly and leads to drama at the worst possible point.

So that thing with her dad finally paid off kind of. He was a rebel all along which was obvious from the book scene in the second book. He also dies, although the two events are unrelated. Also the fact he was a rebel is never mentioned again and isn't relevant to the plot at all. But hey, dystopian!

My main issue with this book is the attempt at a dramatic ending. Okay, so a bunch of characters get killed off in a rebel attack and then they're NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. Like, the king and queen are but not America's head maid, not Celeste, not other people who probably died who I can't remember because the book didn't mourn them at all. It was very jarring in a series with such a track record of lovely and nice characters to have them just kind of forget about the dead and return to happy wedding fluff. I was particularly annoyed about Celeste because she was finally developed into an interesting character and then she's just dismissed by the narrative.

On the whole yes, this is a series which has just gotten worse and worse. I can't deny that I've really enjoyed reading it though and I am going to pick up the sequels. They're so quick to read and just easy. I've read far far worse YA that takes itself far more seriously and I'm not going to hate on a series for being fluffy and sweet. Not when the ride has been this fun anyway!

Overall Rating:

The Elite by Kiera Cass

So I picked up the fast-food equivalent of books again. And yes, once again I loved every second of it. Admittedly I am starting to see how this series could be annoying-the main character is frustratingly indecisive purely to keep the 'who will she pick' mystery going, although to be fair there is also some genuine conflict. One thing I do love is that this world truly stays happy the entire time. There are several things in this that I think are going to develop into huge problems but nope. For example, there's a secret library the prince shares with America and then when the rebels break in, it's implied they knew where it was. I expected this to lead to her being suspected as a traitor but thankfully that never happens. Missed opportunity? Maybe but I like this world as least-stressful as possible.

Aspen continues to be annoying to me, mainly because I don't really buy his and America's romance in this. There is a point where the prince seems to have a darker side but then it's revealed he's even sweeter than ever and really, why hasn't she picked him? It's painfully obvious she loves him more and this does suffer from more of the irritating dragging out.

However, as a sequel I can't really fault this. It offers much of the same from the first, it attempts to world-build a little more and the personalities of the other girls get developed slightly. Overall, I enjoyed it less than the first but only slightly. At least it doesn't lose any points for not being a standalone like the first.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Selection by Kiera Class

Sooo I was fully expecting this book to be trash. I mean, have you read the blurb? That cover is gorgeous but with a main character called America Singer, my hopes can only soar so high. And yet, to my utter bewilderment I really enjoyed this book. Not in a 'so bad it's good' kind of way but in a genuine, 'want to read more' way.

Don't get me wrong, this book is not high art. I read so many negative Goodreads reviews before picking this up that I was preparing for a snarkfest. But there is something so happy and enjoyable about these characters. The protagonist is a nice person, the prince is a nice person, even most of the competing girls are nice people. I didn't find any of them annoying with the exception of Aspen, the 'other' love interest. Even then, he wasn't so much annoying as he just got in the way a bit of my lovely fluffy romance.

However, I do have one major major issue with this book-it doesn't have an ending. As in, literally nothing is resolved by the end and we are stuck with a literal 'TO BE CONTINUED'. I am not okay with that. I don't care how many sequels you've planned, each book should have its own goddamn satisfactory conclusion. This sin was big enough for me to knock my rating down an entire star because I don't understand how an author or publishing company could be this cocky about people picking up two books to get the plot of one. Seriously not cool.

Overall, can I understand why this book might not be everyone's cup of tea? Yes, absolutely. It is fluff pure and simple, a love story about girls in pretty dresses trying to win the affections of a prince. Also there's a love triangle and the barest hint of world-building in an attempt to qualify it as a dystopia.  However, I am genuinely baffled by all the hate this book is receiving because honestly, it's just so nice and unassuming. Ultimately I like reading books about decent people and there just aren't enough of them in YA fiction.

They should have written a freaking ending though.

Overall Rating:

Girl Online by Zoe Suggs

Expect my choice of books to get a whole lot more diverse because I have joined a book club. Hence why Girl Online is the book I'll be talking about today.

Okay, so reading this wasn't my choice which isn't a great place to start from to be fair. But hey, I was optimistic. I've been known to read and occasionally enjoy my share of crappy YA books. Why should this one be any different?

Oh dear god, this book is a sugary wonderland of tween fantasy. I can never eat more than one marshmallow at a time because it hurts my teeth and this book was like someone had stuffed a hundred in my mouth at once. There is no substance whatsoever in this. The author is so terrified of conflict that any drama introduced before the last few pages is immediately solved, just in case the readers start to worry that things might not be perfect after all.

Let me make one thing clear-I am a hopeless romantic. The key being 'hopeless'. Everything is just a little too perfect here. Like I said, it's a tween fantasy sold in a shiny pastel package. The main character (whose name I have already forgotten) manages to solve her anxiety, get the guy, gain self-esteem and become a fairly famous blogger all in just over a week. It's a shame because the conflict at the end could have been interesting but not when the story has been so irritatingly perfect so far. Also it felt like the story completely changed plots when she went to America. I guess it was on purpose but it was still a bit odd somehow. Not sure why.

I'll give this 2.5 stars because a) I appreciate I'm not the target audience and b) the writing is okay and the characters are at least semi-interesting (or different from each other). Maybe I'm being too kind but if you're not allergic to fluffy, soulless marshmallows like me, you might actually find something to enjoy here.

Overall Score:

.5

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Dear Lord I hated this book. What's more, I hate it in a way which makes me angry that other people have given it good reviews.

First things first-this book is terribly written. As in, so bad it's painful. Sentences are phrased so badly that I genuinely started to think the author was just screwing with her readers.

'The thing is, Susannah was right. It was a summer I'd never, ever forget. It was the summer everything began. It was the summer I turned pretty. Because for the first time, I felt it. Pretty, I mean. Every summer up to this one, I believed it'd be different. Life would be different. And that summer, it finally was. I was.'

'It was also ironic, Steven teasing me about being flat-chested, because two summers later I had to wear a bra, but, like, for real.'

'Compared to you, everyone else is saltines, even Cam. And I hate saltines. You know that. You know everything about me, even this, which is that I really love you.'

The main character is supposed to be 15 but she reads more like a 12 year old. She has the super irritating problem of not being able to decide what guy she actually likes. Apparently she falls for Conrad when she's 10 and yet she also kinda likes his brother Jeremy when her friend flirts with him and she also likes a guy who hits on her at a party. Really, she just comes across as someone who craves male attention of any kind and will instantly 'fall in love' with whoever gives her that attention. She's also incredibly vain and self-centred.

'Had he caught me looking at myself in the mirror, checking myself out, admiring myself? Did everyone think I was vain and shallow now?'

'Was this because of me? All summer, Conrad's moodiness, locking himself up in his room-- had it really been because of me? Was it more than just his parents divorcing? Had he been that upset over seeing me with someone else?'

NO YOU IDIOT HIS MUM HAS CANCER.

The boys weren't much better but at least they were likeable. This is the kind of book which drains brain cells when you read it. I don't know what else I can say except for stay far, far away.

Overall Score:

Pink by Lili Wilkinson

Oh, this book had such potential.

I like its concept, I really do. There are plenty of books about the shallow popular girl embracing who she really is and becoming different. I suppose that really this is just another story about a girl in high school finding her place (maybe that's why it disappointed me) but the protagonist Ava is already a gothic lesbian who is super alternative and hip. Rather than tell the story of someone realising they're gay, this story focuses on someone who is a lesbian trying to work out whether that's what they really are. I like the idea that it's just as okay for someone to change their mind and want to be like a stereotypical teenager as it is for someone to decide they want to be different. There's nothing wrong with wearing pink and being 'popular' if that's who you really are. Or at least, I think that's the message the book started off with.

Oh book, why did you have to let me down?

Here's my main problem with Pink-Ava is a goddamn idiot. Okay, so she changes schools so she can start again and find herself. That I can sort of accept for the sake of the book. But after that it's all downhill. She suspects she's not 100% lesbian so what does she do? Decide that straight away she's going to try to get a boyfriend at her new school. Without a trace of guilt or even a second thought spared for her current girlfriend who she claims to really care about but apparently not enough to care about cheating on. Sure, when she eventually does cheat she reacts with mild horror. But it's not like it was a surprise! She's been planning to cheat for about 50 pages by that point and only now is she thinking of her girlfriend???

Another part of Ava's plan is to get in with the popular kids. Miraculously, she manages it on her first day with three of the most popular girls in school taking her under their wing. So far so good. But oh no, all the popular kids are in the musical and force her to audition! After embarrassing herself at auditions, Ava decides that is it and she must resign herself to hanging out with the losers of the school...despite the fact that actually, none of the popular kids care that she failed her audition. Seriously, no one mocks her for it, her new friends aren't bitchy in the slightest and yet for some reason she acts as though they're being the stereotypical bitch squad of the fictitious high school world.

Okay, so Ava joins the loser squad and continues to mope for most of the book even though a) she still hangs out regularly with the popular kids and b) the loser squad is awesome. Ava mopes and mopes until the third act of the book starts and suddenly everyone is a bitch!

No, really.

Queen Bee girl starts playing the part (which seems really weird and out of place given how nice she is for the rest of it) and her girlfriend Chloe also dials up the bitch and makes unreasonable demands so the plot can justify Ava cheating on her. The whole thing is very messy and feels totally wrong since these aren't the characters we've been reading about the whole book. After everyone goes briefly mean, in rolls the (kinda) happy ending and almost everything is resolved/reverted to the status quo.

I say almost everything because surprise surprise, Ava doesn't actually get with the blatant loser love interest that she pretended not to be interested in the whole time even though she clearly was and he clearly liked her which explains why he was being so weird and distant and erratic. Nope, Ava actually insists that since she doesn't know what she wants, she just wants to be friends with the guy until she's figured out whether she likes boys or girls.

Erm, bisexuality is a thing book. Stop acting like she has to make some big choice, she's entitled to like both! It's actually more common than you think.

Anyway, I would like this ending except for the fact that Ava hasn't been able to make up her goddamn mind the whole book and so it just comes across as her being incredibly indecisive, as well as leading the guy on. She waits until he's confessed his love and she's confessed hers before saying that she doesn't want to be with him and even after he says he doesn't care if she changes her mind later, she still says no. This is a perfectly understandable course of action but my problem is with the execution. Instead of seeming smart and practical, Ava just seems to wimp out.

Ultimately, my main problem with the book is that at the end, Ava hasn't really learned anything. Sure, she fixes all the problems she caused (plus a few she didn't) but ultimately she's in the same position at the end that she is at the start. She still doesn't have a solid friendship group, she still hasn't figured out her sexuality and she's still moronic in all her basic decisions. Honestly, I could accept her being an idiot so long as by the end, she realised how idiotic she was. Instead we just have a story about an idiot who doesn't grow and doesn't really do anything remarkably worthy of a whole book.

I feel like I've been very harsh throughout this review so I would like to say that I didn't hate this book. The side characters were interesting and pretty varied, a welcome change from the usual cookie-cutter losers in high school fiction. I liked that the popular people weren't all bitchy and vapid. Sadly though, I couldn't help but be annoyed by it more than I liked it. In the end, its merits did not cancel out its faults.

Overall Score:

.5

Biggest Flirts by Jennifer Echols

Another bit of summer fluff here...or is it? Well yes, it is. But it's very good fluff. I was somewhat torn throughout reading this book. On the one hand, it is so very close to basically having an Idiot Plot. On the other hand, the author just about saves it.

Okay, so the blurb of this book is a little misleading. There are quite a few pages before we even get to the yearbook titles thing and really, the story isn't about the titles at all. But I understand the author is making this a series and the yearbook titles are the glue holding it together so I'll let that slide. Really, this book is a romance pure and simple. It is about nothing more than the relationship between Tia and Will and, while this would usually be a bad thing, remarkably, it works.

A lot of this is down to Tia's character I feel. She is immensely likable, outgoing and free from all the petty insecurities/complaints most female YA characters sadly have. In short, she's just fun.

Will is equally well-crafted. He's not quite as likable as Tia perhaps but he's definitely well-rounded and seems realistic. In fact, all the characters in this book are extremely well done. My only complaint is that side characters didn't get more of the limelight but given that the sequels are apparently going to focus on them, that could be excused.

Sadly this book's plot is what lets it down. Will and Tia can't be together because Tia doesn't want a boyfriend for almost justifiable personal reasons. They flirt, get together, break up for 180 odd pages and while it is handled far better than it could have been, it's still not entirely thrilling. I was also startled by the abruptness of the ending which just came out of nowhere. Again I'm torn though because would dragging it out longer really have been much better?

Overall, Biggest Flirts is one of the better attempts at YA romance I've seen. It's fun, the characters are engaging and while there is some hints of an Idiot Plot, the characters themselves do not actually behave like morons. As far as fluff goes, you could do a lot worse.

Overall Score:

.5

Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Oh, this book was a joy to read.

Right from the get-go, I knew it was going to be good. The characters are a breath of fresh air, undeniably likable and very funny. Levi is realistic as a guy (very important since he narrates every other chapter) and the dynamic between him and Macallan was very entertaining to read. The plot is technically simplistic and definitely predictable but who cares what the journey is when the company is this enjoyable to be around?

Alas I did knock one star off, mostly for personal reasons. While Macallan and Levi do make a lovely couple, just once I would like to read a book purely about friendship. Up until around page 70, I was loving it. One of my closest friends is male and I could identify so strongly with their situation. What I was hoping for was a story about the platonic side, how confusing that can be and how you have to cope with non-romantic jealousy. But of course, after page 70 the romance takes over and you get your standard 'will they, won't they' plot.

My only other quibbles were with how cliched it is. The execution is just about strong enough to pull it off but that doesn't make it excusable. Plus the whole Stacey thing at the end was far too easy, and the constant switching between POVs right at the end almost gave me whiplash.

In the end though, I can't help but love this book. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and who doesn't love that?

Overall Score:

From What I Remember by Stacey Kramer and Valerie Thomas

This is a difficult book to review. On the one hand, I did enjoy reading it. On the other hand, I am fully aware it's a pile of cliched fluff.

Now don't get me wrong, From What I Remember is very good cliched fluff. It's light, it's enjoyable but there are some serious topics covered here. The problem is, they are covered in a similar matter to how a romantic comedy would cover them. Also, everything short of a teen pregnancy/drug addiction is covered which makes it feel a bit overly packed at times.

From What I Remember is the tale of a drunken day in Mexico told from the POV of five different people. Surprisingly this is done quite well although aside from the chapters told by Kylie and Max, none of the others are essentially necessary. The ones from Jake's POV add a fair bit to the story but you could remove Will and Lily's chapters quite easily without losing any of the plot. This would be fine if they were strong enough characters to warrant their presence but sadly this isn't the case. Will is very little more than a gay stereotype, overly flamboyant and obsessed with improving Kylie's life. He's not as bad as some cases since he does get his own romance story but it's still pretty painful to read at times. Lily is another stereotype, the rich bitch girl. I'm most disappointed with the way she was handled to be honest. Seeing the story from her POV could have allowed for some real depth and while she is given a serious problem to deal with, she ultimately remains shallow and flat.

Good things about this book-Kylie was very likeable, Max less so (again, he remained somewhat of a jock stereotype, even at the end). There was a lot going on here so you're not likely to get bored. I liked the structuring mechanism of starting each chapter with a movie quote and Will and Kylie's exchanges did seem pretty realistic most of the time. The writing style isn't bad either, and I liked how the story continued a little beyond the happy 'boy-gets-girl' ending to show us what happens next.

On the whole, From What I Remember is no great work of literature. It's a fun book though and definitely worth reading. In terms of YA fluff, I'd say it's above the rest.

Overall Score:

.5